[sudeepg]

The itch for a new vehicle started somewhere in March 2015. My car, a 2010 Honda City VMT, was almost 5 years old and was going extremely strong. In fact, so strong that:

• Every time I drove her, I always had a smile on my face.
• Every time I gave her for service, I had to think very hard if there were any problems to address.

The city is a fantastic car – extremely easy to maneuver in the city, has loads of space, comfort, absolutely no troubles and has been very easy on my wallet. But then, it did have one big weakness – Ground Clearance (GC). The GC was not an issue at most of the places where I traveled, primarily because we encountered good to moderate type roads and it was just me, my wife and my under 3-year-old son. However, anytime we encountered a bad stretch of road or had 4 people and luggage on board, I immediately came under pressure to be extremely careful. There was one incident where I ended up holding the traffic en-route from Mangalore where I had to cross over to the right side of the road to avoid a HUGE pothole. I even tried to improve the ground clearance by adding coil spring adjusters after following this thread, but it wasn’t enough for my needs going forward, which includes traveling to many places with my son.

My primary needs from my next car was somewhat based on my experiences with city, which were:

1. Top safety equipment (No compromises here).
2. Space for 5 and at least 400 liters of boot space.
3. Front and rear seat comfort plus leg room enough for people up to 5’10 in height.
4. Higher ground clearance, - at least 180 mm or more.
5. Reliability.
6. Good engine power to take 5 people and luggage on highways and ghats.

While the above were absolute requirements, there were somethings I’d have loved to have in addition, namely:

1. GPS navigation – (I use maps a lot on my trips)
2. Touch screen infotainment music system with 4 speakers and 2 tweeters.
3. Leather seats.
4. Fully automatic air conditioning system.

Budget: 12 Lakhs to 13-Lakhs.

I was following the Creta since it started appearing on our forums and it became one of the strong contenders for my next car. Around the same time, we also started getting reports of S-Cross. The S-Cross didn’t impress me much then, primarily because very less was heard about what it has to offer.

Several months later, when Creta was launched, I was thoroughly disappointed with its pricing. I have always bought the top variant of every car and was shocked when I realized that Creta petrol didn’t come with the top end features. Even worse was the endless blunder of feature allocation on the variants. The top end Creta diesel was simply out of reach for me.

But life has to move on! My focus shifted to S-Cross and I was dead sure Maruti would never go wrong in pricing. They knew our market and had gotten their pricing and strategy correct almost all the times (although I never liked most of their products, except Swift & Grand Vitara). Rumors started that there will be 2 engine options – the 1.3 liter and 1.6. I thought to myself - no brainer here, it has to be the 1.6.

Maruti gave us the second biggest jolt of our automotive life when they announced the prices of S-Cross. Rs 17.79 Lakhs on road in Bangalore for the 1.6 diesel and no petrol engines!! It was a bizarre pricing without a petrol offering. 1.6 Alpha went straight out of the window. It wasn’t an option at all. Still, when the cars started appearing in Nexa showrooms, I went to see and test drive the car.



I test drove the Creta diesel, Creta Petrol and S-Cross 1.3. My personal opinion after experiencing these car were that S-Cross is better than Creta unless one had the choice of going for the Creta 1.6 SX(O). The fit and finish in both Creta and S-Cross (top end) are good, but in my case the comparison had to be among the contenders (based on my budget), which were the 1.6 petrol SX and the 1.3 DDiS 200. Among these, the interiors of the S-Cross are far ahead than the Creta petrol and so are some of the equipment levels.

S-Cross 1.3 DDiS 200 pricing and feature list in ticked almost all my needs from my next car. Unfortunately, there were no test drives available then for the S-Cross. After various rounds of talks with my best bud, I pre-booked the S-Cross 1.3 Alpha in blue colour, just because my buddy and my closest cousin indicated that 1.3 might be an option for me. The other colour considered was the granite gray

What I like about Suzuki S-Cross

• All around disc brakes for S-Cross.
• Height adjustable seat belts – always used this as settings are different for wife and me.
• Seat belt pre-tensioner.
• Steering rake & reach adjustment.
• Partial leather seats in S-Cross, leather on hand rest and leather on steering wheels. Most importantly, better back support. The seats on the Creta were just wide enough for me and lacked back support. Further, RavenAvi reported that the threads on the fabric had started coming off on his ride. So that indicated that the quality of fabric was rather poor in Creta.
• Really usable hand rest in S-Cross. The hand rest was useless for my driving position in Creta.
• Glare on the AVN system is much less compared to Creta and the contrast is higher making it easy to read.
• Auto head lamps and wipers in S-Cross. Not a big deal, but something useful.
• Larger windows in S-Cross leading to better sunlight inside the cabin. Must for dark interiors.
• Soft touch & better plastic finishes for S-Cross compared Creta.
• Electro chromatic rear view mirror in S-Cross.
• Programmable options available in 1.3 DDiS S-Cross (must with children and stuff on board), but plain jane MID in 1.6 Creta petrol.
• Request sensor on 3 doors for S-Cross and just one on Creta!
• Voice commands available. (I had a Jabra Freeway in my City which was immensely useful)
• The name itself – Creta (didn’t like it at all)

What I dislike about Suzuki S-Cross

• Steep pricing of the 1.6 DDiS diesel engine.
• Average performance from the 1.3 DDiS.
• No ESP, EBD at this price point.
• Poor rear head rests
• Boot space is less for a car of this size.

Because the S-Cross had a 60:40 folding rear seats, the boot space was manageable for our needs. I wasn’t really bothered about the looks of the S-Cross. Most Maruti’s are not great looking, yet practical and value for money. Once I saw the car in person, I liked the look & stance of the car, especially the head lamps on the top end. Further, the blue and granite gray colours on the S-Cross appealed more than any other colour options. The Creta looks best in white and red, but to me it was rather plain jane. With most taxis out there wearing a white colour, I didn’t want a car in white. White Creta is very common in Banaglore with most people opting for that colour. Having owned a red Honda city, I didn’t want a red colour vehicle again.

What I liked about Hyundai Creta

• Brilliant 1.6 petrol (and diesel) engines.
• Cornering headlamps.
• Higher ground clearance than S-Cross.
• Back seat headrest is more comfortable than S-Cross
• Extra 44 liters of boot space.
• MapMyIndia navigation system compared to HERE in S-Cross.
• Any day better looking than S-Cross from the front.
• Rear Aircon vents.

What I dislike about Hyundai Creta

• Poor equipment levels and build quality in lower variants.
• Steep pricing of the SX diesel variants.
• Features like electrochromatic rear view mirrors, HIDs missing.
• No rear disc brakes at this price.
• No seat belt pre-tensioner.
• No reach adjustment for steering at this price point.

Still, at one point I was even back to considering the Creta petrol. GTO’s comments about letting go the mediocrity when spending over a million rupees pulled me even more to the Creta diesel top end, but – I had to stick to my budget due to some very important priorities right ahead. But I also had to do something about the S-Cross engine. My lovely wife supported me in going for the 1.6 since she saw how disturbed I was, but I was firm that 1.6 didn’t make any economic sense for us in the current circumstances, plus I was confident that I could do something about the “issues” with 1.3.

RavenAvi’s ownership thread of his 1.6 petrol Creta was making me reconsider Creta. Since the petrol was not readily available for test drive, I took a test drive of the 1.6 Creta diesel to see how the vehicle felt overall. I came away thoroughly impressed. But I knew it was way out of my budget and therefore didn’t pay much attention to it. Once the 1.6 petrol became available, I took a test drive. It felt very good for my needs and the ride quality was excellent.

From my past ownership of a Santro XO, I knew that reliability was not a concern with Hyundai, but also knew that post 5 years of ownership the service costs will be very high.

The things that eventually turned my decision against Creta.

• Safety: S-Cross has 4 disc brakes compared to front only in Creta.
• Height adjustable seat belts.
• Steering rake and reach adjustment.

Note: Hyundai made very big mistakes by poorly equipping the petrol variants with these essential safety features. It may not be an issue for the mass, but definitely matters to buyers like me.

• No leather seats, no Super vision cluster, no hill-hold or ESP, no 6 air bags, no electro chromatic mirrors, average audio compared to S-Cross.
• Costs more than the S-Cross 1.3 Alpha on road in Bangalore.
• Back seats felt claustrophobic due to high window line.
• S-Cross has better interiors compared to Creta petrol. The gear knob in Creta is just awful to look at.
• Lifeless steering.

The other nice things:

• Speech recognition. Having used a Jabra Freeway a lot, this was absolutely good to have.
• Really usable armrests in S-Cross.
• Lower mileage figures for petrol engine compared to my City, which always gave me 18-19 KMPL on highway runs with air conditioning.
• Better audio compared to Creta.
• Door open synchronized foot well lights.
• The name – I just dislike the name. ix25 would have been so much better.
• And last but not the least – The poor showroom experience at Trident Hyundai was the nail in the coffin for Creta.

With the engine power of the S-Cross being the real concern left, I spent endless hours were spent on Team-Bhp site reading every post, and every thread related to S-Cross 1.3 engine performance. Because I have a Hyundai i10 automatic for city use, the new S-Cross will replace the City and primarily used for highway, ghats and long distance trips. I had to make sure it had enough power for these applications. I had seen the Ertiga keep up with my City on the highways, but the City was the star when it was in VTEC mode and also on the ghats.

I had read about re-maps on T-BHP several times and one night, I decided to read up about remaps on the 1.3. There was little to no information about remaps on 1.3 and how people were using it. One thread thoroughly impressed me – :: CMS:: ‘s bull dog thread where he got his 85 PS duster remapped with Code6.

The following day, I called Sajan Thomas of Code6 and fixed up an appointment with him. Being a novice at remaps, I had several questions for him:

Requirements

1. No Smoke - Must meet emission norms.
2. Must be reliable tune. Don't like surprises on the highway with a child on board.
3. After market ECU remap support.
4. Must have sufficient power for 4 + luggage on board and climbing ghats.
5. The remap should not hit the limits for the 5 Speed transmission on the 1.3
6. Fuel efficiency dips was not a big deal as long as it’s not too high.
7. What is the care to be taken after remaps?

• Cold engine start - 30 second idle?
• Warm engine shutdown - 90 second idle rule.
• Change in service schedule of part/oil/engine decarb?
• Electricals?

He explained that they had remapped the 1.3 several times and it was very reliable as long as I was careful with the turbo. After my conversation with Sajan and Anoop, I was convinced that S-Cross was the car I needed and with help from Code6, I’ll be able to get a car that has enough power output without burning my pocket. So in the end, the decision was to purchase the 1.3 DDiS Alpha Urban Blue.

Showroom Experience Suzuki S-Cross

In one sentence, I loved the Nexa experience with Pratham Motors, Museum Road, Bangalore. I walked into the showroom and was greeted to a very warm welcome. The relationship manager who looked after my experience was Mr. Nagaraj, a real gentleman. Why? He was able to explain all of the features of the car to me and didn’t give me false information whatsoever. He never discouraged my comparison with Creta, rather focused on what S-Cross had to offer. He very well understood I was confused and torn between the two vehicles. He gave me time and he gave me space to make my choice. He entertained all my calls and all my queries for pricing and options, brochure. I even asked for a long test drive of the 1.3 and he gladly made it happen, which in turn, clarified my apprehensions of how S-Cross will behave on the highway – It was just about enough, not “good enough”.

Hyundai Creta

I walked into Trident Hyundai, Narayanapura (K. R. Puram) and there was absolutely no one to attend to me. The girls at the reception were like – Why are you here? After I expressed my interest in purchasing the Creta, I was assigned to a sales advisor, a lady. She was totally unprepared. I was firm that I wanted a car that had top safety equipment. She had no idea which variants besides top end had airbags. They had no brochures to share, rather just photo copies of feature list which were hardly legible. She could not explain the salient features of the product. They had no idea what features the 1.6 petrol came with. Overall, no enthusiasm whatsoever to sell – Take it or leave it attitude. No follow ups for weeks. Finally, by the time she remembered me, I was already well on my way to getting my S-Cross.

GoodBye Beloved Honda

One of the things that bothered me was parting with my Honda. If I had my way, I would have kept all of my cars, but lack of parking space made me sell her. My Honda was immaculately maintained and it had probably 5 minor scrapes during my ownership. The VTEC experiences were exhilarating! It had enough and more punch to easily do quick overtakes of slow moving trucks on narrow ghat roads. The steering was precise; and when I say precise, I mean I could literally target which wheel will go on the tiniest stone on the road and I knew exactly how the car will go on the corners for the given steering input. The handling was very good and it got even better after switching to 195/60 Yokos. It was always ahead of most cars and not only that, I could travel 80% of the ghat sections on 3rd and 4th gears without straining the engine. Keep the VTEC on its toes on highways and you can easily give other cars a run for their money.

The city tugged at my heart and head so much that there was a point in time when I scratched off both S-Cross and Creta from my list and decided to keep my Honda by adding more equipment. But a very determined buyer wouldn’t let the deal go so easily. He was very persistent and agreed to pay for the new music system and additional equipment which I had put in during the nightmarish days. Given the fact that I felt confident I will be able to iron out all my concerns with S-Cross, I eventually sold the City to him. Here are the last few pictures of her

Right after getting her detailed


Parting Shot


S-CROSS Booking, COSTING, PDI & Delivery Experience
Booking: After all the math and considerations, it was the 1.3 Alpha in Blue colour (as pre-booked). The car was purchased from Nexa Pratham, Museum Road, on company lease due to the immense benefits it has. The booking experience was very pleasant. The showroom had lots of space for display and separate space for delivery. Ample basement parking too. I liked the overall theme of the showroom – uncluttered and organized.

Costing: I had paid 11,000 to pre-book it and was given a receipt. A proforma was sent as follows:

• Ex-Showroom price: 11,18,633
• Road Tax: 2,11,087
• Registration Charges: 1,650
• Insurance: 32,793
• Basic Accessories: 8,800
• Extended Warranty: 15,441
• Grand Total: 13,88,404

No discounts offered. I didn’t want to opt for 3rd and 4th year warranty at the time of booking because I had plans for remap, but the way things worked out, it got included and I was refunded the pre-booking amount of 11,000. Upon sale of my Honda through gozoomo.com, I got a voucher for Rs 5000/- on purchase of my next car, which I used with additional money from my pocket for the accessories.

Pre-Delivery Inspection: This was a rather straight forward affair. Downloaded and printed the team-bhp PDI check list. Called up my relationship manager Nagaraj and explained how I’d like to approach the PDI.

News from pre delivery inspection:

• ODO Reading: 39 Kms
• Trip Meter Reading (B): 26.8
• Tyres: Good.
• Body inspection results – It was way too dark in the Pratham basement. Could not do a proper body check, but it seemed OK.

@ PDI: The only sweet incident at PDI was my son just refusing to leave without the S-Cross. He cried a lot and wouldn’t get into our car.



First sight of our S-Cross


Delivery Experience: My wife & son along with my best friend and one of our friends were present. The delivery was executed in a perfect way by Pratham, Bangalore. Since the car was bought on company lease, all of the documentation was already completed. We literally picked the keys and drove off. But before we did that, my relationship manager did the following things

1. Explained all of the functions of the car in detail.
2. I paired up my phone with the Bluetooth system. It went without a fuss.
3. Gave me the tax paid receipt, invoice, gate pass & delivery challan
4. Insurance papers were already with me.
5. Diesel coupon for 7 litres

For the delivery I took the following things with me

1. Idol
2. Music and video on pen drive.
3. Identification information
4. All documentation via cloud storage.
5. Box of sweets for the relationship manager.

All of the staff gathered together and wished me, my family & friends. We were handed over a box of chocolates along with a bouquet by the showroom manager. We thanked our relationship manager, shook hands with all executives, got in and drove off. The busy museum road was a challenge to get into, but all the staff made sure a temporary passage was made on the road for us to get onto. Pleasantly, it was raining in Bangalore and in our family (and I am sure many others too) it is considered to be the blessings from heaven. The one other interesting incident was, for traveling to the showroom, we hired an Ola cab and the cab which came to pick us up was a brand new one on it's first trip!

All in all, a 5-star experience.


Initial Driving Experience

Drove straight into the nearest fuel station and tanked up. The vehicle took in 46.8 liters of diesel! I was at ease with the controls since the RM had already explained the functions well. From there, went straight to Sai Iyengar for change of tyres, but even after repeated calls to Ashwin in the morning to keep the Pirelli’s ready, there were no tyres in stock. So ditched the plan. By the time I wrote this review, the car had done about 150 KMs.

Engine: Overall, the engine sound was refined and hardly audible inside the cabin, especially with the music playing. You will hear the engine when it is in higher revs. The diesel clatter is audible when outside or when the windows are rolled down or while the car is idling at traffic signal. The driveability of the engine in city is good. In second and third gears, with 4 people on board, you don’t feel that the engine is underpowered. However, for quick maneuvers, you definitely need to ensure you are in the right gear. A quick overtaking attempt in a higher gear will catch you unawares. Maybe it’s because I am yet to get used to the car and more importantly a diesel car, but this is surely something that is likely to catch new owners off guard.

The other area where you will find the engine underpowered is when you are on an incline and you have to go over a softer speed breaker (like many we have in Bangalore). Once you cross the speed breaker, you will immediately notice the turbo lag. Pretty bad in third gear and fairly usable in second gear. As the revs climb, things become much better and you can feel the torque.

Transmission: The clutch is light (No vibrations felt) and easy to use, so are the gears. They slot in effortlessly. I did not have any problem in engaging the gears, including reverse gear. The first gear ratio is designed to move the car from dead stop. Second and third gears are for city driving and as long as you are not in a hurry, things are pretty good. The fourth and fifth gears are good for cruising but they don’t have a lot of punch though. Keep the turbo spinning and things are much better. These observations are based on a night drive to the international airport at night and I didn’t go above 80 KMPH. I haven’t had a chance to take her on the highways, but I plan to do so very soon. I’ll post more details as I continue with my journey with S-Cross.

Fuel Efficiency: The most important point to know being an Indian - With my driving I am currently getting 15-16 Kmpl per liter of diesel. I am driving sedatively with some occassional higher revs. This is great considering I was getting about 12 Kmpl on my city. The fuel gauge is still showing full tank after driving about 110 Kms!

Brakes: The brakes are very good and they are only let down by the poor quality rubber. I had an emergency braking incident today morning and the car handled it pretty well. I didn't feel that braking effect was poor, but the bite starts a little late (compared to my honda city). Even with rear drums, the brakes on the Honda were as good as the S-Cross! The pedal had no vibrations or any kind of resistance. I knew exactly where the car would come to a halt. I haven't tried hard braking and will not during the running in period. But then again, things are very different when braking hard on highways, which I am yet to know. Hopefully, I won't have that type of an incident, but if it does happen, I'll update the thread.

Visibility: As the review said, the all-round visibility is pretty good. The rear quarter glass needs a special mention since it was very useful when changing lanes and coordinating a lane change by looking rear wards. The rear view mirror isn’t that great but I didn’t have any notable problems with viewing the traffic behind. Bring electro chromatic, it’s just very useful while driving at nights though. Adjust the side view mirrors well and you will avoid a lot of blind spots, but not all. The front quarter glass is also very useful when taking close & sharp turns near curbs. Coming from a city I can tell that the City masks its size much better. I was more at ease with the City when I drove her for the first time and I could drive her like a hatch in Bangalore.

Suspension: Nothing different to report here other than the T-BHP review. the bumps are well soaked in at higher speeds and lesser in slower speeds. The faster you go, the better the ride becomes. I am yet to determine the performance on highways. The tyres are good enough for city dwellers but they are definitely not as gripping as the Yokos I had on my City. I am planning to change to Pirellis – 205/60/R16.

Air Conditioning : In one word – Adequate. The FATC does a very good job of keeping the interiors cool. The A/C in my i10 is stronger, in the sense that you can feel the chill in a very short time and we usually turn it off or reduce the fan speed. I can only say that the A/C in the S-Cross is "pleasant". It's not harsh and does its job very well. The fan noise at higher speeds is higher, but acceptable. Rear occupants had no complaints with the air conditioning system. I’d say it is at par with the Honda City. I installed 3M CR-70 films for added heat reduction on the windshield and that greatly helps in keeping the temperature inside less and in turn increase the cooling efficiency of the aircon.

NVH: You will definitely hear the outside world. The engine noise is audible at idling speeds and at higher RPMs. In higher gears, the noise is very less and acceptable. Play music at low volume and you will not hear the diesel engine. The car is well put together and there are no rattling or unwanted noises in the cabin. Even the suspension is silent when going over pot holes and joints on the fly overs.

ICE: Stellar music quality in an OEM system, in fact the system is a notch better than my Honda OEM system which was already very good and appealed to many City users. The system is extremely responsive and works well so far. I am yet to find any quirks with it. The pairing of my phone with the Bluetooth system was slow, but that was due to my Windows Phone acting up. One of the things people will love about the system is its clarity. It’s much better in day light due to a higher contrast and colour depth. All controls are well laid out and work as expected. For most folks, it will be a no brainer to figure out the functions. The screen and settings are un cluttered too and the fonts are easy to read.

Quick Access Feature: Access frequently used functions by using the Star icon in the center of the home screen



Supported Audio Formats

• MP3
• WMA (Created by Windows Media Player 9 or 10)
• AAC
• WAV
• 3GPP
• Audiobooks
• MPG
• AVI for H.264/MPEG4 ASP (Xvid)

Safety Feature: Just as in Creta, video playback is possible only when the vehicle is stopped and parking brakes are applied. Release the parking brake and a notification appears as to why your video was interrupted! the video quality depends on the recording and is pretty good IMO.

Styling: I think both cars look good except that Creta looks great from the front and quirky from the side profile. The rear appeared bland to me compared with the S-Cross. The tail lamps and the tail gate on the S-Cross looks far better than the Creta. However, Creta wins hands down for the front styling. I love the wide grill and that bold stance of Creta. I personally feel Creta could have looked better with bigger head lamps. The head lamps look small for a SUV of this size. As everyone on this forum said, both cars could have looked even better with better alloys. My personal choice is the one Volkman put on his S-Cross. They look stunning!

Exterior Quality:Overall build quality is very good on the S-Cross. Panel gaps are consistent on the doors and tail gate. The doors close with a nice "thud" sound but not in the leagues of German cars, but it is as good as a honda city 3rd Gen. Tail gate needs just a small nudge to close it properly. The paint on the S-Cross is no where near to the VW cars, but still well done up. When viewed from the side in low lights and from a distance, you may get a feeling that the body panels bulge out and are not proportional. I am not sure if that is the light playing up or the way the S-Cross is built but you won't notice it in broad day light. The only place where I saw that the body panel is inconsistent is where the hood meets the fender. There is a wide gap over there and I am not sure why that is the case. The part where the door meets the plastic cladding is very consistent. Unless you look closely, you cannot see how well it is integrated with the body panel. I personally felt that the plastic cladding on the doors are better than the ones on Creta.

Interior quality: The soft plastic on the dashboard area just above the glove compartment feels a bit like rubber but it is soft plastic. It feels very nice to touch. The point where the dashboard meets the door panels are also consistent. I have no complaints there. I only wish they provided leather on the door arm rests. The plastics on the door panels are more or less soft to touch as well. The steering is very good to hold although it is a size smaller than the City. The steering controls are intuitive and easy to use, except the telephone controls (explained later). Horn pad is just about within my reach and no complaints there either. The instrument cluster is great to view and perfect for my eyes. It's very easy to read during day time as well as night.

The hand rest is one of our favorites. It is wide and can be extended and is quite useful for my wife and myself. Drives are more comfortable now for both of us and we really like it. Since Alpha comes with leather interiors, it also has a nice feeling.

The rear seat is very comfortable with very good leg room, the only sore point being the headrest. It's useless when completely lowered. In its second position, the headrest is usable, although you will feel as though someone is holding your head forward a bit. I definitely plan to do something about it. It's a blunder on Maruti's part to not have paid attention to a part which is used on a day to day basis.

The plastics in the boot area and the layout are practical and we really like it, although the space is far lesser than what we had in the City. Nevertheless, it is good enough for our needs and with a 60:40 folding seats, the interior space can be better utilized.

Overall, everything inside is well bolted and there are no unwanted rattling sounds.

Telephone Controls : The phone controls on steering takes some getting used to and are not usable when the car is being steered. Avoid using it to prevent loss of control or being distracted.

• Up to 10 devices can be paired with the system and only 1 active at a time.
• Phone Status: Signal strength, Roaming status, Battery status, Bluetooth connection status
• Private calling (routes the call to phone only)
• Switch between multiple calls.
• SMS read outs/display
• Voice control system integration.
• MirrorLink technology allows using phone apps.

Other Features

Navigation

Maps use HERE maps technology. The navigation system can be programmed only when the car is stopped. These options are available in Navigation.

• Points of Interest (POIs)
• Geo co-ordinate formats
• Orientation: 3D, Auto Zoom, Lane Guidance, Voice Guidance

NOTE: Not detailing a lot of information here since most functionality of other map technologies are already present. I plan to update my ownership report as I go.

Programmable Options

• Door lock/unlock
• Lane change blink count
• Foot lights
• Anti-theft

Central locking

This is one area where owners can get confused before you get acquainted with the car. With the key fob in your pocket, you can walk up to the car and press the request sensor on either the driver or passenger door (as long as you are within 2.5 Ft.) The system will unlock just that door. You could also use the unlock key on the keyfob and it will unlock just the driver door. To open the rest of the doors:

a. Press the unlock key on the keyfob a second time, OR
b. Use the door unlock button on the driver side controls.

This is the default setting and can be programmed. The request sensor works flawlessly. The doors also lock as you start off – pretty good! The remote controller (except request sensor) works within a range of 5m (16 ft)

You could also use the regular key by opening it from the fob as noted below:



The system won't let you lock the car with the key inside the car. If you attempt to lock the car using request sensor and the key is inside the car, you will hear a beep sound and the system will refuse to lock the car. Neat!

Panic Alarm Feature: Press both the lock and unlock buttons on the keyfob. To cancel the alarm, press any of the keys or turn on the ignition.

Pop open the hood and try to lock the car - the siren will sound 3 times to remind you. Similarly, if the doors are open and you try to lock the car, it will warn you with 3 beeps.

IMPORTANT Note from Maruti Manual: DO NOT use high pressure water on the request sensor switch

HIDs/Auto Headlamps

Nothing much to note here, they function as expected. Visibility ahead with the fogs and HIDs are great. The lights have a whitish tint and for folks moving from cars like the City will take a bit of getting adjusted too, but it will happen in no time. On the streets, you may not see the lights well, but on a dark road, they are definitely very good. You can easily spot pedestrians and objects on either side of the road well ahead. The head light adjustment has a healthy range.

Rain Sensing Wipers

Nothing different here – works just as you expect it too.

Other Features

There is a light under the storage area. Here’s a snap.



A light in the glove box too!



Shock Sensor on Security System

1. If the car feels a shock, the system pre-warns for 2 seconds
2. If the shocks continue, turn signals come on and siren sounds intermittently.
3. Post 5 seconds of continuous shocks, the siren goes off for 27 seconds.

This is a configurable option in the MID

Modifications Planned

• 3M-CR 70 film on the wind shield
• Change of tyres to Pirellis
• Ceramic paint protection from Ultimate Detailerz
• Remap from Code6 engineering (later)
• Dash cam (later)

I am not changing alloys since I am good with the look and feel of the stock alloys.

[sudeepg]

Small Inconveniences

a. The S-Cross comes programmed to open just the driver door when unlocked. So almost everyone will fumble with opening the rest of the doors. Use the unlock button on the driver door or double press the unlock key on the keyfob. The setting to open all doors upon unlock can be changed via MID. Similarly, the car come pre-programmed to keep the doors locked when ignition is turned off. Auto Unlock can also be programmed to unlock all doors when the ignition is turned off.


Servicing Information

First service: 1,000 KMS or 1 Month
Second service: 5,000 KMS or 6 Months
Third service: 10,000 KMS or 1 Year

Post that, service is every 10,000 KMs or 1 year.

Issues to be fixed

a. Head rests. It clearly sinks into your neck and it's not at all comfortable. I was well aware of this problem and will find a resolution shortly. I'll share the details after the work is done

b. Wipers are already streaking. I think a windshield cleaning will fix the problem or else I will need to sort it out with service.

c. The steering does not return to center after completing the turn. It returns mostly, but not completely. Have to ask the service folks about this.

Conclusion:

I & my family are extremely happy with our choice and hope that our ownership of S-Cross will be fuss free. We plan to update this thread as we move forward. As of today, we have 3 cars in my family. The S-Cross (our car), an i10 (Wife's car) and a Porsche (my son's car, he probably has the best one - ). Here's are the snaps of the other 2 cars




Thanks Giving
My Family & Best Friends: For giving me great strength, guidance and support during the whole process. The advice provided was invaluable and also for putting up with my tantrums and grievances during the purchasing process.

T-BHP Folks: My sincerest thanks to S2!!, GTO and any other folks involved with the official reviews of S-Cross and Creta. The reviews greatly influenced our purchasing decisions. Team-BHPians who were lucky to lay their hands on S-Cross before me (SandyGordon/volkman,Satishtv) to name a few. Their feedback on these forums have immensely helped me execute a lot of things during the purchase process. I hope you enjoyed reading my ownership report as much as I enjoyed writing it.

NEXA: Mr. Nagaraj from NEXA Pratham Motors - His handling of my queries and concerns as well as providing me with ample time and information has greatly helped me make the right choice.

My Company : For providing me the benefit of getting the car on lease. I can't tell you how efficient, easy & cost effective it was to get a car on lease.

NOTE: I haven't put up a lot of pictures of my car since the Urban blue is the one used every where in reviews and advertisements. Except for the engine, there is nothing different. I'll post more relevant pictures as I move forward with my ownership of the car.

[sudeepg]

Update from September 2, 2015

Got the under chassis coating done from 3M, HRBR. My experience with them was pleasant. Nikhil, who is one of the managers over there explained the cost and the process and was very pleasant to deal with.

I got the following done from them:

a. Under Chassis Coating @ 4783 INR with 5 year warranty (S-Cross falls in medium SUV category)
b. CR-70 Sun films on the windshield and rear quarter glass with 1 year warranty for peeling off or bubble build up.
c. Paint Protection Films on door edges, mirrors and behind door handles @ ~12000 INR

The quality of work is very good and I have no complaints. One cannot make out the films unless you watch very carefully. The PPF on one of the mirrors peeled off a bit which was fixed immediately.

While watching the under chassis coating done, I was pleasantly surprised to see the finish under body of the S-Cross. A major area was already covered with plastic and there was a thought to remove the plastic cover before applying the protection coat. Since I didn't want to disturb it, I asked them to spray the protection coat over it and on the sides of it. Glad to see Maruti has done a great job here. Here are some pictures

CR-70 being applied






Under Chassis Coating -
Stage 1: Wash underbody



Stage 2: Blow dry the underbody, wipe and mask the exhaust pipe and silencer:



See the plastic covering under the body? Really good!





Stage 3: Apply the protection coat



Pipes for fuel and brakes - See how clean and good they are:



The product being applied

[sudeepg]

More Updates To the Car Today

Tyre Upgrade:

I was in conversation with Sai Iyengar for Pirellis but they didn't have it in stock. They had offered 4000 INR for buyback of JK Elanzos. I finally found them at PitStop Sanjay Nagar who agreed to take the tyres for the same rate but they were a bit higher with their pricing of Pirellis P4s. Changed all 4 immediately.

Buyback of JK Elanzos: 4,000 Per tyre
Cost of new Pirelli P4s: 7,800 Per tyre
Final amount paid: 15,000
Size: Same as stock 205/60/R16

Pictures:






Additional Accessories from Nexa:

Nexa was yet to provide me with accessories worth 3,000 INR and I was given the option to pick accessories I wanted. I picked the following:

• Nexa branded folder (for keeping user manual, RC, Insurance Certificate and other documents) INR 350
• Sports Pedals INR 550
• Maruti Branded Perfume (Ocean) INR 350

I really liked the folder. They are of good quality and quite useful. The sports pedals feel better than the stock pedals. Further when driving with wet shoes, they have a better grip compared to stock pedals.

Pictures








Some observations on the quality of materials on the S-Cross

Side Cladding



Boot Cladding



Tail Lamp



Window Cladding



Boot lid mounted stop lamp bolts and wiring



Finally, some pictures from car Pooja

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Initial Ownership Section. Thanks for sharing!

[Parth46]

Let me be the first to congratulate you Sudeep! Very sensible choice and good to see S-Cross finding favor with BHPians.

Appalled to hear about the experience regarding Creta at Trident, sad to note that it's becoming the norm than the exception with Hyundai these days.

Have lots of fun with your new car. I stay very close to UD in CV Raman Nagar, so if you drop in for a ceramic coating, do PM me if you can - would love to drop in and check out your car in person.

Cheers,
Parth

[volkman10]

Congratulations on your ownership of S Cross. Very detailed write-up.

Wishing you a great ownership and looking forward to your updates.

[lovetorque]

First of all congrats sudeepg for the new acquisition, and thanks for the well written experience. Its covers well amount of information, that was not there in the official review.
It would be great if you can share snaps of engine bay, to have a better understanding on the package (engine area).

[Raulspace999]

Excellent choice and congratulations. It is heartening to see people favour S-cross inspire of the creta wave. Guess, the trust in maruti over the years and a promise of a robust after sales service. The Japanese are seriously better than the shortlived Korean toys.

[sdp1975]

Congrats on the new car ! Btw, at a 14 lac price point you would have got the XUV W4 on road in Bangalore and it would have ticked most of your requirements. Did you consider that ?

[sudeepg]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Congratulations on your ownership of S Cross. Very detailed write-up.
Wishing you a great ownership and looking forward to your updates.

Thanks, Volkman! I saw your car this Sunday parked near the Church on Swami Vivekananda Road. I believe it was your car due to the alloys it has. In one word, Stunning! The car looks great and I absolutely loved it.

Originally Posted by lovetorque

First of all congrats sudeepg for the new acquisition, and thanks for the well written experience. Its covers well amount of information, that was not there in the official review.
It would be great if you can share snaps of engine bay, to have a better understanding on the package (engine area).

Will certaintly do. I was in the process of getting detailed picture and posting when I got an eye problem. I am working on it and will post the update as soon as possible.

Originally Posted by Raulspace999

Excellent choice and congratulations. It is heartening to see people favour S-cross inspire of the creta wave. Guess, the trust in maruti over the years and a promise of a robust after sales service. The Japanese are seriously better than the shortlived Korean toys.

A lot of folks in my office and outside gave me this exact comment when they heard about my purchase - You moved from a Honda to Maruti? Once they saw the car & interiors in person every one said "Great choice".

I personally think Creta (top end) is the only one which is as good as the S-Cross Alpha. Maruti made a smart move by providing a 1.3 DDiS engine with the Alpha variant. That allows people like me to afford a feature rich car. Though there is not a great punch from the engine, it is very good enough for my needs. On the ring road, the car does well as long as you are over 1700 RPM. Drop speed a bit in 5th gear and you must downshift.

My RM and Nexa folks have been in constant touch with issues or needs I have raised with them and the relationship is going very strong so far! The negative experience at Trident did certainly score big in making a decision to go in for S-Cross.

Originally Posted by sdp1975

Congrats on the new car ! Btw, at a 14 lac price point you would have got the XUV W4 on road in Bangalore and it would have ticked most of your requirements. Did you consider that ?

Yes, I certainly did but dismissed this option very quickly due to the following:

a. Extremely poor experience with India Garage showroom. No one bothered to provide any sort of information. We walked in, saw the car, asked for information but got a cold response, walked out. Anant cars were better a bit.

b. After reading through the XUV niggles thread, I was apprehensive about service and maintenance costs.

No doubt XUV has come a long way, but after living a Honda reliability cycle, this option was not good enough for me.

[Raulspace999]

Excellent choice and congratulations. It is heartening to see people favour S-cross inspire of the creta wave. Guess, the trust in maruti over the years and a promise of a robust after sales service. The Japanese are seriously better than the shortlived Korean toys.

[mustang_shelby]

Congratulations @sudeepg, and wish you many years of wonderful ownership ahead. The way you have focused on the features and quality of S-Cross illustrates how this car is a well-engineered package. Also heartening to see that in the tussle between looks and features, you went with the S-Cross instead of spending on a less equipped Creta variant for similar price.

[kaushik51094]

Congratulations on your new purchase. Nice car and awesome color choice (we have a 2nd gen swift zxi in blue)! Maintaining it is a pain but looks awesome once it is clean and polished. Wishing you many happy miles with it!

[sandygordon]

Excellent review Sudeep
Congratulations on the purchase and wishing you lots and lots of happy miles in your blue beauty.